Gu Jingzhou's time has not yet been broadcast live, and everyone is just thinking about making a living or making a good pot.
I don't know whether it is the pot that makes people, or whether people make pots.
Gu Jingzhou is known as "a generation of grandmasters" and "purple sand titans". In 2015, Gu Jingzhou's "Squirrel Grape Ten Head Set Tea Set" sold for 92 million yuan, which not only refreshed the auction record of Gu Jingzhou's own works, but also created a new auction record for Chinese purple sand pots.
The price of Gu Ju has always been "soaring", and when he showed his prominence that year, Gu Jingzhou once threw the pot on the spot in anger.
Why is Gu Jingzhou's pot worth money? Only by knowing his story will you know.
1. Ancestral pot art and origin
Ding Shu's school of pot making is very particular about the master's inheritance, as if the master is strong and the apprentice is powerful.
In addition to the inheritance of the master, the concubine line of the son inheriting the father or the inheriting mother should be more valuable than that, and should be able to get the essence of inheritance more. Gu Jingzhou's pot art was enlightened by his grandmother, to be precise.
This can explain why Yixing Zisha has more "family".
On October 18, 1915, Gu Jingzhou was born in Yuan Village, Dingshu.
The Gu family is poor, every dusk, you can always hear Gu Jingzhou's reading and the sound of his grandmother making pots, Gu Jingzhou's grandmother is good at making pots, is the granddaughter of Shao Youlan, a famous purple sand player in the late Qing Dynasty.
Since the age of 17, Gu Jingzhou has been working on pots every day and has devoted his life to purple sand.
Speaking of Gu Jingzhou's master, Chu Ming is a pot maker, but strictly speaking, Grandma is the enlightener on his pot art road, and Gu Jingzhou grew up in such a dazzling environment.
2. A master who dropped out of school
For some people, learning all their lives has nothing to do with whether they are in school or not.
Because of his family's poverty, Gu Jingzhou dropped out of school as soon as he graduated from Dongpo Primary School. But he did not give up reading, and his self-created study "Moyuantang" was almost the first study ever in the village.
And followed the principal Lü Meisheng to learn ancient Chinese for three years, learn ancient Chinese knowledge, and also immerse himself in the style and qi of the literati.
Later, Gu Jingzhou cooperated with Shanghai calligraphy and painting masters Wu Hufan, Jiang Hanting and others on 5 large stone pots, and "Jingzhou Stone Scoop" became a classic of literati purple sand.
Some people say that he is the most cultured pot artist, and some people say that he is the one who connects "art" and "craftsman".
In fact, he is just a reader who has been practicing and reading all his life.
3. The mysterious antique history of Shanghai
Shanghai is his eye-opening place, and it is good to have more time to go out and walk.
Gu Jingzhou was introduced by Dai Xiangming, the owner of the Iron Painting Society, in Shanghai to Jiang Hanting, Tang Yun, Wu Hufan, Wang Renfu, Lai Chusheng and other famous calligraphy and painting seal engravers, which made Gu Jingzhou's creative ideas and artistic style have more nutrients from different perspectives.
In 1939, he was recruited to shanghai "Lang's Art Garden" to specialize in antique pottery.
A place where all circumstances cannot be leaked to the outside world, he copied the works of Chen Mingyuan, Shao Tycoon and other Ming and Qing dynasty pot artists all day long, making friends with the best masters and communicating with the best works.
Image source: The Biography of Gu Jingzhou
It is this life of immersing himself in antiques and taking the works of the highest skill as competitors, so that his pot art gradually breaks away from the craftsmanship and rides the dust.
"Juvenile imitation, middle-aged creation, late age change", unremitting exploration of the purple sand cause, he said frankly in his later years, "This is a disgraceful history, there are also the creations of pot makers."
4. Gu Jingzhou dropped the pot
There was once a saying in Shangyuan Village that Gu Jingzhou was a lazy man who refused to make a pot!
In fact, Hu Shao is not unwilling to do it, but Gu Jingzhou insists on Ning Que rather than indiscriminate, and even destroys everything that is not satisfied.
When he first became famous, he happened to hear an old man commenting on his foreign barrel pot in the tea house, and the pot he thought was perfect was pointed out by the old man for several major deficiencies, Gu Jingzhou grabbed the pot and smashed it in public, and promised the old man to lose a new pot.
Afterwards, Gu Jingzhou did come with a new pot, and the improved foreign bucket pot made people shine.
For making pots, Gu Jingzhou has always pursued extreme perfection, not willing to settle at all, and each process must be simple, reasonable and standardized.
5, Gu Jingzhou's love: partridge lifting beam pot
If a pot can give her a meaning or story, it will be more popular and valuable.
In 1964, Gu Jingzhou finally ended his single life and married Xu Yibao, when he was 50 years old and Xu Yibao was 39 years old.
In fact, over the years to Gu Jingzhou to introduce a lot of objects, but has not been successful, fortunately the most beautiful love is never afraid of late, the two spent nearly 20 years together.
In 1983, his beloved wife Xu Yibao fell ill, and Gu Jingzhou created a "partridge lifting beam pot" full of emotions under extremely simple conditions.
When his wife died, Gu Jingzhou cried bitterly and was grief-stricken, and he never confessed his affection, but in a pot he seemed to hear the cry of "no way to do it", pinning his sad heart that had nowhere to rest.
6, for the thief to intercede: the pot is precious, life is more supreme
In 1990, before the opening of the second ceramic art festival, there were theft cases of many representative works such as Gu Jingzhou and Jiang Rong.
Fortunately, the case was quickly solved, and two young people who gambled in debt were dizzy and thought that they were valuable and stole the pot.
When Gu Jingzhou heard that the two were going to be executed, he and Jiang Rong went to intercede together and sincerely wrote a petition. In the end, it was still a death sentence, a slow death, Gu Jingzhou was seriously ill for this, in his eyes the pot was precious, but life was supreme.
7, the pot is shaped, the pot shape shows the wind bone
Before there is a personality, there can be a pot grid. Just as the pot has a shape, there is a wind bone in the shape of the pot.
In the more than 60 years of purple sand creation career, the number of Gu pots is not much, but because of the pot, Gu Jingzhou has offended many people.
Once an official used his right to ask him for a pot, and after he knew it, he dragged it out for 19 years, and the pot was not done well until his death. This is the only pot without style, and it is also a pot that witnesses Gu's wind bone.
A pot, a pot artist's life, the quenching of fire and earth, can give the purple sand pot vitality and value, always people! And what is truly valuable will also be more time-tested and more time-tested.
On June 3, 1996, Due to lung failure, Gu Jingzhou died of illness in Yixing People's Hospital.
On June 7, 1996, more than 1,000 people sent off a generation of masters in Yixing Purple Sand Craft Factory.
At this point, a generation of Grandmaster Gu Jingzhou passed away!
Reference: The Biography of Gu Jingzhou